The One on the Rooftop
by Adrian Kidd
Summary: As Glenn is on one of his runs in Atlanta, he runs into another survivor. Amazed that she was able to cope by herself in an unfamiliar city, Glenn starts to develop a certain fascination in the stranger. Based in an AU where the group has not yet left their original camp site, Glenn befriends the girl and she soon proves to be a valuable member of the group.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so this is my first fan fiction, but I'm hoping it's not too bad so far. It's set in an AU where the group stayed put after Rick joined them, so Glenn is still doing runs into the city everyday. Everything is told from Glenn's perspective, but I might add in some other peoples' points of view later on. Reviews would be appreciated, feel free to point out anything I can improve.**

**Of course, all of this is property of AMC, apart from my OC.**

Chapter One

"Hey." I jumped. _What the hell was that?_ Startled, I looked around, attempting to find the idiot that was loudly whispering at me.

It took me a second to spot her, but I soon saw her in the shadow of the air ducts protruding from the next roof over. She was skinny, but obviously not because she was starving. Her small stature gave her an innocent look, but it was obvious from the knife strapped to her thigh that she was far from it. Adding to this was the fact that she had a gun trained at my head.

"I need to talk to you." Her voice was steady, but she didn't seem aggressive, just cautious, as she was talking with a sense of casualty.

"Who the hell are you?" This was the first time that I had come across another person in the city, apart from Rick. I had thought about the complete desolation and emptiness of the place before, but I guess I had never considered that maybe people were still surviving here. But now, here was some pretty girl hanging out on a roof just waiting to speak to me.

"I've seen you around before. Now, your guy - the crass, loud one - I thought you should know that he's alive. An idiot, but alive."

Straight to the point then. Merle was alive, at least we knew that now. Of course, we had already assumed as much because of our truck being stolen, but now we knew for sure.

"Oh… Uh, thanks. Really, thanks. Can I just ask, why did you do this? And who are you?"

"I did it because I thought you'd want to know what happened to him. I mean, you did chain him to a roof and leave him there, but I figured it wasn't completely your fault." _How did she know that?_

"And, like I said, I've seen you around. I figured I should talk to you at some point. I'm just using this as my excuse." At that she gave a laugh, dropping her gun and returning it to it's holster on her hip. I put down my arms, which I had subconsciously raised.

" So, you said you live here?"

"Yeah, I do now. Ever since the outbreak." How this was possible, I had no idea. I had learned to slip in and out of Atlanta and had never considered staying for more than a few hours. There were Geeks were in pretty much every building I had come across, so I guess she had somehow managed to clear one out and secure it for the time being.

"How did you know what happened with Merle?" I sort of blurted it out. I hadn't really intended for it to sound so much like an accusation, but I couldn't exactly take it back now.

She cracked a half smile, "I was kind of watching you guys for a bit there. You caught my attention. Mainly because of the yelling, but also because you guys were, you know, _alive_. I was watching from a few buildings over, but only caught the tail end of the drama, right when you and that other guy left, and then the rest of your guys waited around for a bit. Then they all ran, but one guy waited around, flailed a bit and then followed, leaving behind… Merle?"

I nodded. The fact that she had been watching us freaked me out a bit, but I guess it's what anyone what anyone would have done.

"I was going to help him," she continued, "but I thought I should wait until he cooled off a bit. He screamed his head off for a while, then went straight to cutting off his freaking hand."

It was definitely Merle that she was describing. "Yeah, good choice. And Merle isn't all bad. He is harsh and pretty disgusting at times, I'll admit it, but I think he's mostly a good guy. He has a brother. We came back with him, but we just found a hand."

"That must have been… Exciting." She smiled again. I liked her, especially now that she was no longer threatening me with a weapon. She was more normal than I would expect someone in her situation to be, but she still definitely knew what she was doing. Surviving in the city could have been possible for anyone in the first few weeks if they had just been smart enough to barricade themselves in a room with some supplies, but the fact that she had survived this long while still moving around the area was amazing. It would have taken a certain amount of skill to do.

It wasn't just her apparent skill that I was considering. She had a sense of humour: something that was fairly absent in most people right now. Already she was coming across as more light hearted than anyone that I knew. It was a nice change. I guess it didn't hurt that she was pretty, either.


	2. Chapter 2

**Like before, I don't own anything but my original character. Hope you enjoy, and I swear this will get interesting soon.**

Chapter 2

I returned to the camp right after we had parted ways. It had happened fairly abruptly because of the geek that had come out of the stairwell leading the roof that she had been on. She had taken it down efficiently, with the sort of speed and accuracy that I had only seen in the guys like Daryl and Rick back at camp. After that she had dismissed herself, saying that she needed to get back home.

"Glenn's back!" Dale called from the top of his RV. Immediately, Shane and the kids ran up to me.

"Run into any problems?" Shane was still sort of the leader of the group, even after Rick's arrival. He had been since the start, so I guess it was going to be that way for a while. He seemed to know what he was doing, so nobody had any problems with it.

"Naw, it was all good. One… unexpected thing, though."

"And what was that?" A few others had wandered over by this point, interested in the fact that I actually had news that could be about something other than the undead.

"I ran into a person." The way I said it almost made me laugh. _Ooh, an actual, real life person. It's almost like that's unheard of._

"Holy shit. No way? What the hell we he doing in the city?" Shane said, genuinely excited for once.

"She lives there. An she gave me some good news." I was feeling a bit smug at this point. It was nice being the one attracting all of the attention.

"She lives there? How the hell has the girl managed that? She an idiot?" This time it was Daryl, surprisingly. He almost never talked to me, and had never before shown the slightest interest in my runs, apart from when we were going for Merle.

"Actually, she seems to know what she's doing. Shoots as well as you do, too," I said with a laugh. Daryl smirked, obviously thinking that I was fooling with him.

"She told me that Merle's alive." This wiped the smirk off of his face immediately.

"The hell does she know?"

"She watched the whole thing. From when Rick and I left to get the truck to when Merle cut off his hand." While I was saying it, I could feel everyone tense around me. The fact that we hadn't known that we were being watched that whole time was pretty creepy, but I guess it was even worse that this girl that none of us knew had watched Merle cut off his own hand, doing nothing to help him.

"How in the hell did you not notice that you were being watched that whole time? Are you a bunch of idiots?" He was angry. Understandably, I suppose. It was his brother: the only family he had left.

"Dude, calm down. Merle's alive. We know that for sure now." By now, the others had started to try to calm him down, but they were also riddled with questions.

"How old is she?" _Awe, Carl thinks he might have a new friend._

" I don't know, we didn't talk for long. Younger than me, older than you. I'd say somewhere around 20. Maybe a bit older." To be honest, I really had no idea. She seemed older than she looked, but she looked pretty young. Maybe a few years older than twenty, but it couldn't be much more than that.

"How did you find her?" Rick asked. Knowing him, he would want to go back for her. She was the first survivor we had come across since him. He cared so much about Morgan, maybe it was going to be the same with her.

"She found me, actually. She wanted to tell me that Merle was alive. I guess she had seen me around and felt that she could trust me."

"She didn't want to come back with you?" _Yup, he's going to want to help her._

"No, she kind of left abruptly. A geek showed up, she took it down and left right after. I think she knows what she's doing, but I think I'm going to pay more attention when I'm in the city, it could be good to bring her back here." _If I'm allowed, that is_.

"Can we trust her? I mean, I guess she's already shown us that we can, but do you think it's safe for her to come here?"

"I think so. She seemed nice." _Oh my god I sound like an idiot._

"Nice? Just because she seemed nice doesn't mean that she won't take out stuff and kill anyone who gets in the way. She's survived this long, in the city, too. She must have some sort of a strategy. And really, good for her. She's doing what the rest of us can't to survive. She watched my brother cut off his own hand. I'd say there's something wrong with her." And there's Daryl, being the one that thinks the worst of every situation. He's the most pessimistic, but he might be the smartest. Because really, I don't know her. None of us do.

"I don't know, okay! We talked for like five minutes, less, even. I know nothing about her, except that she went out of her way to tell us that our guy is alive."

"Yeah, of course. Don't worry about it, Glenn. We're just excited, that's all," Rick said.

At that, I nodded and glanced at everyone else. Andrea and Carol were talking to each other excitedly, and Carl and Sophia were already starting to make speculations about the "new girl" and her skills. Feeling no obligation to stick around, I headed toward the RV to put away some food I had managed to grab earlier on my run.

After a couple of hours, the group was starting to gather around the fire in anticipation for dinner. Exiting my tent, I noticed that, for once, Daryl was eating near the rest of the group. Taking the seat beside him, I wondered what had brought on this change in the seating arrangement.

"You sure you can trust her? 'bout Merle, I mean," he said quietly. I doubted anyone else could hear.

"Yeah. Why would she lie, right?" I was answered only by a nod from him.

Over dinner there were many speculations about the "new girl," as everyone had come to call her. Everyone had questions at first, but they soon came to realize that I didn't know much more than them. Once nearly everyone had gone to their tents, Daryl spoke up again.

"I want to come with you on your next supply run." _This was unexpected._

"Uh… Why, exactly?" I wasn't used to going with other people, and the last time I had it hadn't ended well at all.

"That girl, I want to help you find her." _Wow, he's full of surprises tonight._

"Oh, well, I mean I- I get why I want to find her, but I've decided that I do runs alone from now on, after last time, you know?"

" I don't think you understand. I wasn't asking your permission. I'm going," he said, without looking up. I wasn't exactly sure why Daryl wanted to come, but he seemed pretty keen on it.

"I guess… Yeah, okay then." And with that he got up and left. I wasn't exactly sure why Daryl wanted to come, but he seemed pretty keen on it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The journey to Atlanta was more than awkward. Everytime I tried to start up a conversation with Daryl, all I would get in return was a gruff word or two. It was only when we were nearing the outskirts of the city that he started to ask the odd question.

"What kind of weapons did she have on her?" he finally said.

"Uhh… I saw I knife strapped to her leg. And then a gun that was at first pointed at my head." At that, Daryl let out a small laugh.

"She had a gun aimed at your head and you still trust her? Sounds like she was pretty damn 'nice.'" _What was that supposed to mean?_

"Dude, I would have done the same. Anyone would have." It was true. There was nothing wrong with what she had done. Daryl had thought that maybe she manipulated people to survive, but I thought she was just smart. She knew what she was doing; she knew not to trust people.

After we had checked out a few buildings, only coming across a few geeks, we ended up at what used to be a bookstore. It was surprisingly untouched compared to most of the other buildings. I guess it wasn't that much of a surprise. When it came to the apocalypse, not that many people are going to be going after books.

"The heck do we need from here?" Daryl asked, slightly annoyed by the fact that I was forcing him to do a seemingly useless chore.

"I thought everyone could use some new reading material. We don't have much else to do."

Daryl began to make sure the area was clear, first heading to the left side of the small store, then weaving through the shelves. I did the same, starting from the right. The store was designed in such a way that after going through the door, you walked past the front desk and a small cafe area with tables before reaching the many shelves of books.

"We've got a couple bodies over here. No walkers that I can see," he called out.

"Yeah, I don't see anything."

I began looking for books that I thought would interest the various members of the group, or that could be useful when it came to surviving. I managed to pick out some series about a kid with sea powers for the kids, and a few classics for the rest of us before I turned the corner, coming across a sight that shocked me more than I had been when I first heard that there were undead cannibals roaming the streets.

There, standing among the shelves, was Daryl Dixon holding a copy of Pride and Prejudice.

Accidently, I let out a laugh. I mean, it was pretty funny. The fact that this man, the toughest and most unemotional guy I had ever met, was planning on reading a book famous for its romantic, drawn out love story was slightly dumbfounding.

"Shut up," he said gruffly.

"No, no. I'm sorry. I was just surprised. I won't say a thing." I said it with a smile, which was most likely not helping the situation.

"There's nothing wrong with it. I figure, it's gotta be popular for a reason, so I might as well read while I've got the chance. We ain't got much time left to do this sort of this, you know." He was making sense. I had never read it, but I had to admit that I wanted to know what all of the fuss was about.

"Can I borrow it once you're finished?" I said meekly.

"Yeah, I guess so. Just don't breathe a word to anyone about this." I nodded. _That was going to be a challenge_.

After we perused the shelves a bit longer, we decided to check out the rest of the building. It looked to be a home owned bookstore, but it was still a decent size. We had seen a staircase leading down to a basement on our way in, so we headed in that direction.

"I'm going first," Daryl said as he started down the stairs, his crossbow aimed at the door. After listening for a few seconds, he looked back up the stairs at me.

"We've got a couple of walkers in here. I'm gonna bust the door open, then come where you are to take them down. Ready?" I really didn't have anything to do with this plan, but I still gave him a quick "Yes."

Within seconds, Daryl, had kicked in the door and bolted up the stairs, training his bow on the entry. Immediately, a geek wandered out, gnashing his teeth and making your average guttural moans. He was dressed in light jeans and a button-up shirt. His body was fairly clean compared to most, only a few scratches and a bite mark visible on his upper arm. Daryl took him down quickly, causing him to fall to the floor with a thud, his arm getting stuck on the railing of the stairs in the process. It was torn from its body, leaving it hanging with the tendons swaying below, blood slowly dripping onto the floor.

I stood, disgusted by the scene as much as I was by the stench emanating from the newly opened room, but I didn't get to stare for long. Seconds after, two more Geeks came through door. Daryl took down one, but then hesitated on the second due to what had just appeared behind it. Coming out from the shadows of the room were more Geeks than I had ever encountered in a building like this before. But, the most jarring thing was the smaller one, right behind the Geek that Daryl had just killed. She couldn't have been more than seven years old. She had two cute little ponytails and a bright pink shirt. She would have looked alive if it weren't for her missing lower jaw. Her legs were frail and grey, but were partially covered by deep purple leggings.

"Run," Daryl said quietly. Then again, this time yelling it.

"Run!" He quickly turned, pushing me up the rest of the stairs with him. I stumbled, but he managed to grab the back of my shirt with his free hand, hoisting me out of the stairwell and turning around to cover our backs.

"Which way?" I said, panicked. Normally we could have just gone out of the front door, but we knew that we weren't going to be able to run away from these Geeks without attracting too much attention.

"There another way out?" he yelled over the moans of the undead that were now ascending the stairs clumsily.

"Uh.. Yeah! This way!" I started in the direction of the small cafe area. I remembered seeing a hallway going from it to what had looked like the bathrooms, but it was really our only choice at this point.

Running down the hall, I managed to find a door labelled "Employees Only." Being our only choice, I pushed through it, finding a small store room through the door.

"Out! There's nothing in here," I screamed at Daryl. I really was screaming at this point. Mainly because of the little girl that wanted to eat me, but the other walkers helped too.

Continuing down the hall, we found a more promising door. "Fire Exit Only," it said in big, bold letters.

"Here, through here!" I pushed the door open and was met by the overpowering sound of the fire bell, which was now blaring from every direction. It at least drowned out the sound of the Geeks that were beginning to get closer to us, but it was the loudest sound that either of us had heard in a long time. There were no more city noises, no more iPods. The only sounds we heard now were our voices and the noises coming from the dead people that were always trying to eat us, and those were not that loud.

This sound was the complete opposite. It was ringing in my ears to the point where I could barely stand. My hands were clamped over my ears and my knees were buckling beneath me. Everything was a blurr. I could barely see Daryl, but it looked as though he had made it through the door, at least.

Scrambling to my feet, I started to half crawl, half run up the stairs, which were apparently leading to the roof. I was still unable to hear a thing, but I was at least getting a bit more oriented. I looked back to see Daryl struggling to slam the door on the walkers. I guess he didn't realize that it was a the type of door with the bar that you pushed to open it, so it was a pointless advance, but he had given up and was starting up the stairs now anyways. I turned back, reaching the top of the stairs as well as a second door. I waited a couple of seconds to make sure that Daryl was going to make it, then pushed through.

Bursting out into the roof, I stumbled, but managed to regain my footing. My ears were still ringing, but I was able to hear Daryl yelling as he was pointing towards a ladder leading up to the roof of a connected building. I nodded, running towards it.

The walkers had started to spread out onto the roof, Daryl taking down as many as he could as they came out. I started to climb the ladder, and Daryl followed. The walkers groped at his legs from the ground below, but he managed to shoot one on his way up. The arrow hit her in the centre of her forehead, leaving a spray of blood on his pant leg as she fell back, cracking her skull on the cement.

By the time we reached the top of the ladder, we were both out of breath. Not only had we just sprinted for a decent distance while I was screaming my head off, but we had gotten our ears blasted out and been forced to climb a ladder while being attacked by Geeks that wanted to devour our flesh. _That's a nice summary of that experience._

"Stupid bookstore," Daryl muttered, obviously more pissed off than anything.

We stayed there for quite a while, Daryl at one point getting up to make sure there weren't any Geeks around. Personally, I was still freaking out. I knew that walkers were dangerous. We all knew that - it was common knowledge now. But I had never imagined them like this. That was a little girl, the same as Carl and Sophia. I guess I had just never realized that this was affecting everyone. It wasn't some Hollywood movie that magically exempted the children from all bad things. There wasn't going to be a happy ending to this story. Not for any of us.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry it took me so long to update, but hopefully this was worth the wait. Thank you so much for the reviews!**

**Of course, none of this belong to me apart from my OC.**

Chapter 4

"You brought a friend. That's new." I jumped up, but Daryl was already pointing his bow at her. However, she had a gun pointed at his head, in turn.

"Well hey there," she said with a smile and a raise of her eyebrows, looking towards Daryl.

"This is her, I'm guessing." I nodded. Daryl sounded casual, but he looked surprised. I was too, truthfully. Sure, I'd seen her the day before, but she was still a stranger. She hadn't changed her clothes since then, but that wasn't unusual. Her arms were visibly muscular, embarrassingly more so than mine, and the navy tank top that she wore made it apparent that her torso was just as toned. She was cleaner than I was, that was for sure, but her clothes were covered in blood and dirt. Again, there was a knife strapped to her thigh and a gun pointed at someone's head, fortunately not mine this time. But, in addition, she had a metal baseball bat strung across her back with blood covering most of it's surface.

Her hair was a dark brown and her bangs were swept to the side. The smile on her face accentuated all of her features, making her dark eyes somehow glow and her nose to crinkle. She was closer than she had been yesterday. There was no longer a gap between the roofs that we were on as there had been before. This time she was standing no more than ten feet away, amazing me because Daryl hadn't heard her until she had wanted him to.

"What are you guys up to today?" she asked cheerfully, seeming genuinely interested.

"Um, looking for you, actually," I said, not exactly sure what she would think of this.

"What for?" Her smile faded and her voice dropped to a more serious tone. It was apparent that she wasn't fond of the idea that we wanted to talk to her. In my mind, this disproved Daryl's theory of her wanting to gain our trust, then steal our supplies. I thought it was obvious that she didn't want us looking for her. She would talk to us when she wanted to, and that had just been demonstrated today.

"I wanted to thank you," Daryl said with a hint of despise.

"Awe, no problem. I'm assuming you're referring to the news on Merle?" Daryl nodded.

"Is that all, though? I have to say, you don't seem like the type that would go out of your way like this for a simple thank-you. Not if you're anything like your brother."

"He is a good man. May not seem like it sometimes, but he is."

This whole time, I had just been staring at her. It was hard not to; she was the only new living person that I'd seen in a long time. But now, she glanced over at me, noticing the surprised look that was sprawled across my face.

"Why did you want to find me?" she demanded.

"I- I don't know! You seem to know what you're doing, I thought maybe you could help us." My voice was high and I sounded frantic, like a scared child, but maybe that was helping my case. She suppressed a smile, obviously being entertained with how frightened I was. Glancing at Daryl, I saw him sporting a similar grin.

"What are you so scared of?" she said teasingly. "I'm not even pointing my gun at you this time." I had no idea what I was scared of, but I could only assume that it was still the nerves from the Geeks we had just run into.

"I think the kid's still freaked out from the little adventure we just had. We were in that stupid bookstore, a bunch of walkers that had been locked in the basement overwhelmed us," explained Daryl.

"Oh, get anything good?" she said, completely brushing past the part where we had almost died.

I piped up, "Daryl did," receiving a glare from him.

"Naw, nothing in particular," he said, trying to dismiss her inquiries. She smiled me, apparently viewing me as the weaker link on our side.

"Come on, what was it?" I didn't know what to do. I couldn't exactly tell her because Daryl would kill me, but the urge to do so was incredibly strong. She looked like she was having so much fun pestering us like this. It was hard to tell if she was crazy, or if she was just happier than most were.

"Pride and Prejudice," I whispered with a laugh. Her smile grew wider as she turned her head back to Daryl, who was looking at me in such a way that I was beginning to fear for my life.

"Good choice. There's actually a parody called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was pretty good, but the zombies were pretty stereotypical. I much prefer these ones," she mentioned casually, motioning toward the Geeks that were still trying to reach up from the roof that we had just escaped from. _She had to be crazy. No one should enjoy this so much._

"Anyways, you guys up for going back down there and clearing the building?" Oh no.

"May as well. I'm running out of arrows and it'd be better not to leave any behind."

She and Daryl were still aiming their weapons at each other, but I wasn't sure if they were aware of that anymore.

Though my interest in going back in there was lacking, I had no choice but to follow the two of them as they prepared to take down the Geeks waiting for us at the bottom of the ladder. It hadn't been an ideal run, but we had at least found the girl, whose name I still didn't know, and I was now getting the opportunity to watch her fight.

There were about eight walkers down there, and Daryl only had three arrows left. So, we devised a plan in which he would draw the walkers away from the ladder, giving the girl and I time to go down and get them from behind.

"Ready?" Daryl asked, looking from me to her. We both nodded, readying ourselves to run down the ladder. Daryl started to walk down the edge of the roof, yelling down to the walkers below. They started scrambling around, moaning and hissing as they followed him away from the ladder that they had been so faithfully guarding.

Once they were far enough away, the girl nodded at me, then hoisted herself around, dropping down from the ledge. She slid down the sides with ease, not even touching the individual rungs. I followed not so gracefully, landing on my feet in time to see her bashing in the skull of a Geek that had strayed from the rest. She was swinging the bat with such a force that chunks of his brain were flying in all directions. I ran past, careful to avoid the radius around her, to begin killing the rest of the group.

All I was armed with was one of Daryl's knives, but, since it was Daryl's, it was at least a large one. I thrust it into the back of the nearest walker's skull, feeling it break through the bone and go in far enough to reach the brain. I pulled it out as it fell, putting my foot on the back of its neck for leverage. By now, she was beside me, swinging her bat downwards onto the skull of another victim. This one was a young woman. Her hair was tangled and covered in grime, but was turning crimson due to the newly formed opening in her head. As soon as I looked at her properly, a knife was protruding from her face, soon being yanked back out.

Looking up, I saw the girl kicking the now fully dead Geek away, her foot contacting the small of her back. She fell back into the now significantly smaller crowd just as the girl jumped forward, smashing her bat through the heads of two more walkers, then stomping down upon their partially broken heads.

Only a few Geeks remained. I managed to dispatch two more, and the rest were shot from above by an impressed looking Daryl with the only arrows he had left. The girl walked up, pulling the arrows out of their heads, then returning them to Daryl once he had joined us amongst the pile of bodies.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" he asked, nodding in appreciation. Her skills were pretty astounding. She had just been using a bat, but it seemed to be pretty effective, especially in her hands.

"I did some fencing in high school, plus Hapkido for a couple of years before that, but I'm pretty much self-taught. I've always done archery, too, but only ever with a barebow," she explained.

"We'll have to get you shooting once we get back to camp," Daryl decided. _Since when was she coming back with us?_

"I don't think that'll be happening for a while, but thanks," she nodded unenthusiastically. Apparently she wasn't planning on becoming too friendly with us.

"What's your name?" I finally asked. I had grown tired of just thinking of her as "the girl."

"Thera," she replied simply. "Nice to meet you," she said, holding out a hand for me to shake.

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Glenn, by the way." I was only now realizing that she hadn't know my name, either. "And you already know that this is Daryl."

Heading down the stairs, we came across a couple more Geeks that hadn't followed the rest of their group. Inevitably, among them was the small girl. Thera paused when she saw her, realizing why I had been phased so much by the encounter. She made eye contact, with Daryl, apparently wondering if he was going to shoot her, or if she should go out there and bludgeon her with her bat. Luckily, Daryl shot her, quickly dispatching the rest of them as well, sparing us the gruesome sight of what might have happened.

I didn't want to look at the now fully dead girl, but it was hard not to. My eyes were drawn

to the sight, making me feel sick. Her eyes remained open, but there were vacant and opaque. The arrow sticking out of her head was soon yanked out by Daryl, who went on ahead, forcing us to follow. Thera gave me a reassuring look as we descended the stairs to the basement, seeming to understand what I was feeling.

"This room is pretty well sealed off," Daryl observed upon entering the room. One corner was taken up by a couple of mattresses, while another contained a small pile of food.

"Couldn't have been that secure if they ended up like that," I replied.

The three of us scoured the room, hoping to find something valuable apart from food, which we weren't comfortable taking due to it having been locked in a room full of dead people. I found two flashlights that were still working, and Thera managed to discover a watch, which she seemed to be very happy with. Daryl, who hadn't really been looking, spoke up.

"I don't see how a walker could have gotten in. My best bet is that they had it here on purpose."

"They seemed to know what they were doing, plus, do you really think they would put their kid in danger like that?" I countered, not wanting to imagine the little girl having to be trapped in here with a Geek like that.

"She could have been the one they were keeping alive," Thera suggested. Daryl perked up, appearing to like that theory.

"No! Let's just drop it and get out of here." I was finished. The smell in the room was bad enough, never mind having to think about dead children devouring their parents.

The three of us promptly returned to the main floor of the building, Thera stopping to grab a few books, giving me more time to drill her with questions.

"Are you seriously all by yourself?" I inquired.

"Yeah, it's been easier that way. Plus, I didn't know anyone in the city that I would have wanted to work with," she replied simply.

"Are you really just using a baseball bat and gun?" I had a lot of questions, so I was going to seize the opportunity.

At this, she laughed. "The bat is better than you'd expect. And no, I don't use the gun. My knife and bat are my favourites by far. I've been trying to find some new weapons, but they're further into the city than I'd like."

"Why do you even carry the gun then?" Daryl asked.

"For people. Obviously it'd attract corpses in most situations, but I don't really need it for them. For people, I do." Seeing the shocked looks on our faces, she began to explain. "Not that I shoot people! No, I don't intend on shooting anyone, but I've found that people find me more threatening if I'm pointing a gun at their head, as opposed to a baseball bat. I've run into trouble before, the gun is just an added defence now." While saying this, her voice was varying in pitch. It was almost like she was defending herself; almost like she didn't want us to think badly of her.

Finally understanding that she wasn't, in fact, some sort of murderer, we finished up in the bookstore and went back up to the roof that Thera had initially found us on.

"We should be heading back," Daryl stated, looking up at the position of the sun. It was probably four o'clock by now, and it would take a decent amount of time for us to get back to the camp.

"Yeah, same here," said Thera, glancing down at the walkers in the alley beside the building.

"Why not come with us?" I finally asked. I wasn't sure if it was even an option for her, or if maybe she was already planning on doing so.

"Thanks, but no. I've got my own place and I'm doing just fine." She didn't even hesitate when she answered, apparently she had expected the offer.

"You sure? I mean, you could meet the rest of us. A new face would be good for them." Daryl said, surprising me. It wasn't like him to be so trusting, especially since his initial reaction towards him had been one of suspicion.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I've been around enough people for one day. It's been nice meeting you, Daryl," she replied with a smile. "And it was good to see you too, Glenn. We'll do this again some time, huh?" She joked.

"Uh - yeah, definately. That'd be nice," I stuttered, hoping not to sound too awkward. I could see Daryl smirking out beside me, appearing to find my reaction entertaining.

With a grin and a nod of her head, Thera turned around and started towards the opposite side of the roof, most likely to the same ladder that she had so stealthily come up. Daryl and I were left alone, both watching her head disappear as she quickly slid away from sight.

"Time to go," he said, turning in the opposite direction.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Our journey to Atlanta had been a fairly boring one, riddled with few words, but the journey home was very different. On multiple occasions Daryl piped up, mentioning things about Thera or the walkers that we had found in the basement of the bookstore. It was strange to hear him actually want to talk about something, but it was a welcome topic.

On getting back to camp, everyone had questions again. The fact that Daryl had accompanied me this time was an exciting thing in itself, but this was, of course, paired with the possibility of us having run into the other survivor. Carl and Sophia were both buzzing, hoping to learn more about the new face that they had expected to see upon our return. Everyone else was grabbing for the new books that we had delivered, making me smile due to the hidden classic in Daryl's bag, who had left for his tent as soon as he could get away.

"Did you find her?" Rick asked, standing beside Carl, who was now anxiously waiting for my response.

"Yeah, yeah we did. Well, she found us."

"Sounds interesting," he replied questionably. After explaining the encounter to Rick and the others who stuck around to listen, we retired to our usual places around the fire, again being joined by a silent Daryl. Eventually we all finished dinner, leaving the fire to withdraw to our tents.

The next day came, and with it a chance for another run. AsI left my tent and headed up for the RV, hoping to find something for breakfast, Daryl fell into step beside me.

"You coming again today?" I inquired. He replied with only a nod, silently breaking away from my side and changing direction, going up towards our car, apparently expecting us to leave right away. I quickly grabbed a can of peaches, then returned to my tent and gathered up all of the supplies that I would need for the run.

"Ready?" I asked Daryl, as I got closer to him.

"Naw, I think I'll need another few minutes to do my hair," he said sarcastically. I ignored him, being fairly used to his grumpy undertone.

We reached Atlanta, immediately being met by a small crowd of walkers. Daryl dispatched them quickly, pinning them all in the head with his bow. The rest of our run was fairly uneventful, only consisting of a few run-ins with Geeks and the usual range of boring supplies. At around three o'clock, after waiting for Thera for a while on the rooftop that she had found us on the day before.

Sitting there, I began to consider everything that I knew about her. She was skilled with a

baseball bat, and most from what it sounded like good with a bow as well. And assuming from how she had fought, she was in pretty good shape. But then again, that wasn't much of a deduction; everyone that was surviving was in good shape nowadays.

I didn't know much more about her, save what she looked like. Her hair was light brown and roughly shoulder length, cut choppily which seemed to emphasize her personality. From the little that I knew about her, I felt as though I could assume that she had cut it herself. Apart from that, I couldn't think of much. Each time I had seen her it had been a shock to me, knocking me out of my senses. I hadn't had time to sit and stare.

Her voice. Even if I hadn't had time to stare, the main thing that I had done was listen. I had repeated her words about Merle over and over in my head, her sarcastic undertone and the soft, yet deep feel had been flooding my thoughts constantly for the last couple of days. She definitely wasn't from Georgia, but maybe from somewhere further north, judging from her accent.

"Let's get out of here. She ain't coming," Daryl huffed, jarring me from my train of thought.

Once we were back at camp, the only people that came to greet us as excitedly as they had the last couple of days were Carl and Sophia. Rick joined us a couple of minutes later, but there really wasn't anything to report. We went about our usual activities, almost as though nothing had happened. Almost as though there wasn't some girl that we had just met, out there in the city by herself.

"What the hell was that?" Shane yelled angrily from the top of the RV, responding to the sound of gunshots echoing through the quarry below us. Dale jumped up beside him, eyes wide. We had never seen anyone near the camp since the very beginning, so there was really no protocol for this.

On instinct, I ran for Rick. He was already grabbing the guns and marching towards the quarry, being followed by Shane and Daryl, who was running to catch up to us. Rick handed me a gun, while I stumbled trying to keep up with him.

"How many of them do you think there are?" I asked breathlessly.

"No idea. I only heard enough shots for one gun, but there's no way of telling," replied Rick.

After jogging for a while, we were nearing the area that the shots had come from, about halfway between the camp and the city. Breaking out of our run, we all crouched down, Daryl keeping his bow pointed up in front of him. I could hear Geeks not too far off, which was unusual this far from Atlanta. Though I couldn't see much from where I was, I could at least make out about thirty walkers, if not more, all crowded around a tree.

"The hell are they doing this far out?" Daryl murmured to himself.

"Must have been following whoever is in that tree," Shane replied, though he might have just been making an observation.

Moving forward, I was now able to see exactly what was happening. All of the walkers were crowding around the large tree, grasping upwards towards the foolish person that had stranded themselves there. They had the whole thing surrounded, giving the survivor no means of escape.

Suddenly a flash of movement came down from the lower branches of the tree, causing two Geeks to fall to the ground. Then again: a slash from the lower branches, taking down another two walkers. Now that my attention had been drawn towards it, I saw a pile of bodies below where the person must be perched; at least ten or fifteen Geeks laying there, heads assumingly bashed in. Apparently this stranger was fending for themself just fine.

Even so, the four of us left our hiding place, running toward the crowd of walkers. Daryl started shooting as soon as he was in range, detracting attention from the survivor in the tree, and alerting the walkers of our presence. He circled around, heading out to the left, leading the back of the main group of Geeks away from the tree. The opposite side of the tree had fewer Geeks, so I went in that direction, Rick and Shane taking the centre.

"Thera!" I heard Daryl call out. _What the hell?_

"Fancy seeing you here!" the familiar voice replied with a tense laugh.

Unfortunately, I didn't exactly have time to react. The Geeks closest to me had already started towards me, moaning and gargling as they stumbled in my direction. I quickly raised my gun, backing up as I did so. Looking through the sight, I pointed tentatively at the head of the nearest Geek. She was wearing a long, floral sun dress, accompanied by two dainty, white sandals. Her mouth hung open and her eyes were white and glazed over. Then, she was caked in blood, dropping to the ground.

The next walker was of a similar stature. He was a skinny, young man with pale, rotting skin that had fallen in areas along his neck. He was wearing a button up shirt that had a pen clipped to the pocket. _How mundane. How… normal._ As he quickened his pace, I pulled the trigger, sending a bullet right through his forehead.

There were only a few more walkers on my side, so I continued around the circumference of the tree, meeting Daryl as I went. Looking up, I was finally able to see Thera, who was still defending her tree. She had developed a very effective method of taunting the walkers, forcing them to climb up towards her, over the pile, then bashing their skulls in with her bat. She had her knife stuck in the tree beside her for easy access after a swing, but her gun was back in it's holster on her hip.

Noticing that I had appeared from behind the tree, she smiled at me while waiting for more walkers to make it up closer to the tree. There were only about ten Geek left now, and I could see Rick and Shane slowly making their way through the horde from the right, back the way we came. Daryl was behind me retrieving a few of his arrows, leaving me to work at the group from the back. I carefully got the attention of a few more walkers, leading them away from the others so I could take them down more easily. As I was backing up, I raised my gun once more, immediately shooting one. The gun was becoming more comfortable in my hands, so I was beginning to shoot more effectively.

Continuing to back up, I failed to notice the body that I was backing into, inevitably falling over, right onto a decapitated walker.

"Dumbass," I muttered to myself. I could feel the blood seeping through my shirt, but was mainly concerned with the two walkers that were bearing down on me. I could feel myself scream, but wasn't able to hear it. Attempting to back up merely resulted in covering myself in more blood, but suddenly, both the walkers' heads were split open, blood seeping through the wounds protruding from their heads. They fell straight on to me, causing me to feel crushed beneath their weight. However, the most overpowering sensation was their smell.

"Oh god! This is horrible." I closed my eyes and held my breath, hoping that whoever had saved me would help me get out from under the awful creature that I was covered with. Before I had the chance to push them off myself, they were hoisted off of me by a welcomed savior.

"You should have stuck to deliverin' pizzas," Daryl joked. Beside him, stood Thera, who had pulled the other Geek off of me. She leaned down to wipe off her knife on the walker that she had killed, Daryl leaning down to grab his arrow. Behind them, Rick and Shane were finishing off the last of them, the gunshots finally ceasing.

I let my head fall to the ground, which I then realized was, in fact, a dead body. Leaping to my feet, I brushed off all that I could, which somehow made me feel more clean.

"Thank you. Both of you." Daryl barely even looked up, but Thera gave me a reassuring smile, which I tried to return.

At this point, Rick and Shane had made their way over to us, reminding me that this was their first encounter with Thera.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Rick," he said, wiping his hand on his pants before holding it out for her to shake.

"You too, thanks for the help," Thera said with a smile and nod.

"Yeah. Looks like it's good we came when we did," Shane speculated, giving Thera a smile. _He had better not be trying to flirt with her. _"Shane, by the way."

"It was definitely a big help," she countered, nodding at the introduction.

"You seem to know what you're doing," continued Rick, "Glenn told us about your skills with a bat."

Thera smiled, "Why thank you. Unfortunately I ran into a bit more trouble than I generally need to deal with."

"You were handling yourself well. Can I ask how this all came about?" Rick gestured to the blood soaked area around us, completely covered with bodies.

"Yeah, of course," she replied.


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, I really appreciate all of the feedback.**

******As always, the only part of this that belongs to me is my OC.**

Chapter 6

"So there's another group of survivors in the city?" I asked excitedly.

"Yeah, but I don't suggest involving yourselves with them. That's why I left; they were camped in a place right near mine, so I didn't want to risk them seeing me. I'll go back as soon as they've cleared out, which I'm sure won't be long."

"No worries, you can stay with us as long as you want. I'm sure we could use your help," assured Rick.

"Thank you, and thanks again for helping me back there."

"Yeah, I've gotta say it's pretty lucky that you were so close. I mean, I'm sure you could've handled them yourself, but you know," I said sheepishly.

Right now we were heading back to camp, circling the perimeter of the quarry. Not too far off I could see Andrea running towards us, Shane jogging ahead to apprehend her.

"That's Andrea, by the way."

"Okay, thanks. How many of you are there?" she questioned.

"I think we're down to about 15 now, I don't want to pay attention to exact numbers," I explained, attempting to count everyone up in my head, hoping to keep away from the thoughts of everyone we had lost. "Want me to run you through everyone?"

"Wow… Yeah, sure." She was quite obviously surprised that there was so many of us. It would be strange for her, considering that she had been by herself for months.

"Okay. Well, you've met me and Daryl already. Then of course there was Merle as well, but he hasn't come back. Rick has a wife, Lori, and a kid, Carl. Rick was in a coma when this all started, but I guess Shane got Lori and Carl out safely and brought them to Atlanta. Then I ran into Rick in the middle of the city stuck in a tank _completely _surrounded by walkers, would have been dead if-"

"Hey," Rick interrupted, "you're making me sound like an idiot!"

"Well you were, dumbass. You would've died pretty quickly if we hadn't come along," I said with a laugh. "Anyways, the others are Shane, Dale, who sits on top of his RV all day, Andrea… She had a sister, but we had some Geeks make it into the camp. We lost some others then, too. Carol, who has a daughter, lost her husband. He wasn't the best guy, though. Also Jim, he was bitten and we had to…" I dropped off, not exactly knowing how to describe shooting our friend in the head caring for him for days, knowing that we couldn't save him.

"I guess that's the downside of having a large group. I'm sorry, you don't have to go on." Her words were sympathetic, but she said them in such a way that it didn't seem as though she was very comfortable with the situation.

This whole time, Daryl and Rick had been walking behind us, but now Daryl moved forward, taking position on Thera's other side.

"We've got a few others, but there's no point in boring you with the detail." _Well thanks, Daryl. _

With a laugh, Thera replied, "No, it's good to know the sore spots. Thank you, Glenn."

"She's just being polite," Rick joked from behind us, making his way up to my side.

Andrea and Shane had finally made it to us. Andrea stopped, staring at Thera as she stood between me and Daryl. It was only now that I realized that we were all covered in blood, me especially. Looking over to Thera and Daryl, I could see that they both had red smudges and spatter marks all over their faces, not to mention their clothes. Thera was particularly covered, most likely due to the spray from her bat.

"I'm Andrea. I can't tell you how good it is to see a new face," she said with a grin. I hadn't been sure if everyone would trust her right away, but it looked as though we were off to a good start.

"Thera. Nice to meet you," she answered.

"You too. That's a pretty nice gun," Andrea observed. It was just like her to point out things like that. Lately she had developed a slight obsession with protecting herself, which was understandable, but it was getting a bit excessive, almost as though she felt the need to prove herself.

Squinting slightly with one eye, Thera glanced from Andrea to her gun. "Why thank you," she said with a hint of sarcasm. I could see Shane suppressing a smile behind her. Apparently everyone had noticed Andrea's new obsession, even the newcomer.

We continued walking back to camp, Andrea and Shane now holding up a conversation with Thera. Daryl, Rick, and I stayed back a bit, listening to all of the question they were asking her. Occasionally we would exchange glances, secretly making fun of the two of them for being so enthusiastic. Thera was just answering everything as simply as she could, sometimes adding on little side questions directed at them, probably trying to lead some of the talk away from herself.

The second we were in sight of the camp, Carl and Sophia ran up to us, stopping right in front of Thera. Rick, Daryl, and I caught up, turning our small group into a half circle, Thera and the kids stuck right in the middle.

"Are you the new girl Glenn's been talking about?" Carl immediately asked, obviously very excited.

"I suppose I am. And you are?" Thera talked to him as though he was an adult, but she had an extra vein of kindness entwined with her usual tone. Sophia stood slightly behind Carl, just staring at Thera's face. It was covered in blood, after all.

"I'm Carl, this is Sophia. How old are you?" _Well, I guess we can always depend on him to get the real answers. _As they spoke, Lori, Carol, and Dale were walking up behind them.

"Well it's nice to meet you both. I'm not exactly sure, but I'd say I'm 24 and three quarters. Almost 25. What about you?"

"You're younger than everyone else here! Except maybe Glenn?" he said, looking at me quizzically. "How did you survive all by yourself? Oh, I'm 12. We're both 12."

Thera let out a laugh, "You can ask me some more questions later, I promise." She moved her gaze to Lori and Carol who were standing behind the kids, smiling. Lori looked slightly concerned, but the concern vanished the second Thera looked at her.

"I'm Thera," she said simply.

"Lori, Carl's mom." Carl looked dismayed that he had to be introduced like that, almost as though he was embarrassed that Thera knew his mom.

"Good to meet you, I'm Dale." He stepped forward, holding out a hand for her to shake. She took it graciously, nodding. "And this is Carol. Sophia is her daughter."

"Nice to meet you," Thera greeted.

After that, Thera was faced with continuous questions and introductions for the next couple of hours. She handled it well, but seemed quite drained. When I thought about it, she had most likely gone a long time without food, considering she hadn't made it back to her house the night before, then she had been forced to walk all the way here from Atlanta, having to stop to fight off at least thirty walkers. As well as that, she probably hadn't slept since before Daryl and I had run into her. It was a surprise she was still standing.

She joined us for dinner, stating that it was one of the first cooked meals she had had since this all began. It was only a few fish that Andrea had caught accompanied by beans, but it was better than nothing. Sitting on either side of her was me and Daryl, while Carl and Sophia hovered around her, quizzing her at every chance they got.

After dinner, Thera remained by the fire with us all, being constantly bombarded with questions. Finally, Dale spoke up, forcing everyone to lay off her, turning the conversation to stories about the group and allowing her to relax a bit. She was given a brief history of our whole "apocalyptic experience" together, as well as a few personal stories.

"Well, I guess we should head in soon," Dale stated, stretching out his legs. "You're welcome to sleep in the RV, Thera. I'm sure we can make some room for you."

"Oh, thank you, but I really don't want to disturb you guys' sleeping arrangements. Is there a tent or something that I could borrow by any chance?"

"Really it's no trouble, but yeah, I'm sure we could find you a tent. Glenn?" He immediately looked to me, evidently deciding that I was the one to ask for supplies.

"Yeah, I think we've got one that isn't being used. I'll go check." I quickly ran off, considering where the unused tent could be. I found it partially collapsed off behind Rick's, but upon better investigation I found that it was torn apart. It used to be Jim's. It was probably destroyed on the same night he was bitten. I pushed away the thought and went back to Thera and Dale.

"It's completely wrecked," I said upon returning to the fire.

"You sure you don't want to sleep in the RV?" Dale asked once more, a joking tone in his voice this time.

"Would I be able to sleep _on _the RV?" I suppose it was a valid question, but I really couldn't imagine wanting to sleep up there as opposed to the interior - the safest place we had. It wasn't bad up there, of course. It had a nice view, but it wasn't particularly comfortable. Dale was up there nearly all the time keeping watch during the day, and when it wasn't him it was Shane. Other than that the only person up there was Daryl, who would alternate the night shift with Shane when he wasn't off hunting.

"I don't see why not. Daryl, are you on watch tonight?" He said, encouraging Daryl to talk for one of the first times since we had gotten back. He had listened in silence nearly all night, as usual, but had surprised us a few times when he had spoken up to ask a question or make fun of someone.

"Yeah. 'S okay with me."

"Well, I guess that's settled. I'll grab you a blanket," Dale said, heading towards the RV.

Silently, Daryl looked from me to Thera, then walked over and climbed the ladder, taking his position in the chair. He leaned back, glancing sideways toward the two of us, who were still standing by the fire.

"Well, how are you enjoying the group?" I asked, hoping to break the silence. She had looked as though she was enjoying herself all night, so I was expecting a positive answer.

"They're nice. Too many of them, but you're good people as far as I can tell. I'll be out of your hair soon, I swear. Just a day or two longer, then that group should be cleared out."

"Hey, no. Really, don't do that. We're the first people you've talked to in months. Don't just leave." I wanted her to stay, I really did, and not because she was some mysterious figure that had appeared out of thin air to do a good thing for a stranger. As rare and important as that was in this world, it wasn't what made me trust her. She had come back for us the next day. She hadn't asked us about our camp, so it was safe to assume that she wasn't planning on stealing out supplies. She put up with Carl all night. She just fit in.

"I can't stay." That was it. No reasoning? Nothing to add - just a simple no.

"Why not?" I was almost whispering it. I felt like yelling it, as I was doing in my head.

"We're not going to be rescued. Not anytime soon, at least. I _want_ to stay, but I want to survive, too. I have a better chance of that if I'm by myself. I'm sorry, but it seems you're doing fine with who you have now anyways." We really aren't. I don't know if anyone has really felt safe for weeks. We've lost so many people that I don't think we'll ever feel safe again.

"This should do just fine!" said Dale, handing Thera one of our extra blankets.

"Thank you, Dale. Goodnight, both of you." It was said with a slightly more vacant look on her face, but still with and heir of friendliness.

"Don't let the bedbugs bite!" Dale attempted.

"Night, Thera." I muttered. Dale followed behind her as she headed to the ladder, entering the trailer as quietly as he could so as not to wake the others sleeping within. Thera looked up at Daryl, who was now upright in the law chair on the roof. _Was he listening to the whole thing? _Slower than I had seen her climb before, she went up the ladder.

Deciding to go to bed myself, I turned away from the RV and went into my tent. All I could think about was Thera's words. _We're not going to be rescued. _I don't know how true that was, but there was no way of knowing. Saying that, she didn't know either. _Pessimist. _Of course someone was going to rescue us. The whole world could be affected by this, but there was no way the military had been taken over everywhere. _They'll get to Atlanta eventually. They have to._


	7. Chapter 7

**A shorter chapter than usual, sorry. Hopefully I wrote Daryl in character and didn't mix his thoughts up too much. Thanks for reading!**

**Again, I really appreciate the reviews that I've been getting, thank you!**

Chapter 7

**Daryl's POV**

"They're nice. Too many of them, but you're good people as far as I can tell." She had a good opinion of us apparently. I was surprised; I wouldn't be able to consider the people that had been drilling me with questions all night "nice."

"I'll be out of your hair soon, I swear. Just a day or two longer, then that group should be cleared out." It seemed to be her only concern, making it back to her own place. I guess she really didn't want to stick with a bunch of strangers, though I'm not sure Glenn and I would still be considered strangers to her.

"Hey, no. Really, don't do that. We're the first people you've talked to in months. Don't just leave." _Freaking Glenn. _If she wanted to leave, we needed to let her leave. There was no point in getting her to stay longer if she was that intent on going. We couldn't keep someone like that around to talk nonsense into the others.

"I can't stay." She can't even think of it. _Good._

"Why not?"

"We're not going to be rescued. Not anytime soon, at least. I _want_ to stay, but I want to survive, too. I have a better chance of that if I'm by myself. I'm sorry, but it seems you're doing fine with who you have now anyways." Even I wasn't that cold. It would be obvious to any everyday idiot that we weren't "doing just fine." No one could be right now, apart from her, apparently.

I could see Dale walking up to them, who would definitely make their whole conversation even more awkward. "This should do just fine!" he said happily, proud of himself for finding the blanket, I guess.

"Thank you, Dale. Goodnight, both of you." Even when she was slightly pissed off she was still polite.

"Don't let the bedbugs bite!" _Oh come on, Dale. _He really couldn't get any more stereotypical old man at this point.

"Night, Thera." Glenn mumbled quietly. He must have lost some confidence after Thera shot down his requests for her to stay. She looked up at me, causing me to look away sheepishly. Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I could see Glenn staring at me also. I acted as casual as I could while still watching them. Thera and Dale had started towards the trailer, while Glenn was still stationary behind them, staring at their backs.

Laying back more, I listened to Thera climbing the ladder. She was making her way up slowly. I could just imagine how worn out she must be after having to deal with all of those idiots by the fire. They couldn't leave her alone for a minute, but I suppose it was going to be one of their only chances.

When I finally raised my head, I could see Glenn retreating to his tent and, without looking back, could tell that Thera was settling down behind me.

"You good?" I asked, hoping to get a positive answer so as to avoid further conversation.

"Yeah, thanks."

Thinking back to her earlier talk with Glenn, I considered her tactics. She was out to survive. It as all that mattered to her. She had been by herself, but even now that she had met a group that she was at least fairly comfortable with, she couldn't even consider staying. It was a self obsessed move, in my opinion. Meeting Carl and Sophia hadn't changed her mind in the least bit.

She wasn't the type that I wanted around anyways. The fact that she refused to stay proved that. She was essentially leaving them to die, even while she was doing well enough for herself. For all we knew she was going to try to sneak off in the middle of the night. Probably better that way.

Why she wanted to stay by herself, I couldn't understand. Sure, it was going to be easier only having to fend for yourself, but what kind of life would that be? I just couldn't think of being stuck by myself forever, the only company being walkers. No noise, no conversation apart from those with yourself; you'd go crazy. For all we knew, maybe she had.

"He doesn't want you to leave." My voice was the only sound that we could hear. There was no shuffling from below us and no wildlife. Just my voice echoing off the trees.

"I know. You heard me, though. I can't stay."

"Yeah, I get it. You want to survive." That was pretty much it, after all. It wasn't like she had a family to go back to.

"Not exactly. I just don't want to die." _What's the difference? She's probably just trying to sound profound._

"Same thing."

"No, it isn't. I have nothing to live for anymore. No family left, no group. Surviving isn't really important anymore. I just don't want to die." _None of us want to die, dipshit. _

"Not like that, at least," she said, motioning to the city on the horizon. "I'm not going to kill myself, so I have to stay alive. There's no other _choice_ but to stay alive."

Well, at least she had some dignity. She was contradicting herself, though. Refusing to join our group, yet complaining about not having one. It made sense that she wanted to survive, but just because of that it didn't mean she had to go off by herself and abandon the only good people she had met since this all began.

My mindset about her had changed since her talk with Glenn. Before I had considered her a good fighter and a nice enough person. Yeah, she had seemed a bit crazy when she had laughed at all of the walkers and acted like it was all a game, but then it had just been a coping mechanism. Now it was almost as if she didn't care about anyone else, but I knew that wasn't true. She had gone out of her way to tell us about Merle. She had to be a good person.

Truthfully, I didn't know what to think of her. Every time I tried to approach it from a certain angle, I came up with a completely different conclusion. Sometimes she wasn't the type of person I wanted in the group, sometimes she was just a good person that was trying to stay alive like the rest of us. It didn't matter anyways. She said she'd be gone soon.

I hadn't heard Thera move for a while, but I still felt like I was being watched. "You still awake?" I questioned as silently as I could manage.

"Yep," came a curt reply. I leaned back closing my eyes and sighing. "You want me to take watch or something? I doubt I'll be sleeping much anyways."

"Nope," I countered. We sat in silence for the longest while. I tried to focus solely on the perimeter of the camp, but it was hard with Thera right behind me.

Eventually, the sun began to rise. Thera sat up, moving to my side to lean against my chair. I looked down to see her wrapped in the blanket that Dale given her, snuggling herself up into a ball and resting her chin on her knees.

We sat there without talking until the others started to appear in the camp. Dale was the first one to wake up, as usual.

"Hey you guys," he said kindly while ascending the ladder to join us. I nodded at Thera, then stood up. After greeting Dale before heading down the ladder, I retired to my tent. On my way there, I could only catch a bit of the conversation that had started between Thera and Dale.

"You sleep well?" he inquired politely.

"Yeah, it was good. Thanks," she replied.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Glenn's POV**

I rolled over, my limbs aching. Sitting up slowly, I attempted to stretch out my legs and arms without it being too painful. I let out a sigh and climbed out of my sleeping bag. The sun was already pouring into the tent, heating everything up. I knew that I had slept in, but I wasn't regretting it.

"How was your sleep?" I heard from outside. Whoever it was - most likely Andrea, judging from the voice - was not talking to me.

"Pretty good, thanks," replied a woman that had to be Thera.

Coming to my senses, I unzipped the door to my tent. It was warmer than it had been lately, but there was still a bit of a morning breeze. _At least I hadn't slept too long._

"Hey there, sleepy head," she greeted with a smile. She was standing next to Carol not too far away from where I was now standing.

"Morning," I yawned, heading over towards them.

"Are you going on a run today?" Thera asked immediately. I guess she wanted to see what was going on with the group near her place, but I hadn't expected her to want to leave this soon.

"I could. I mean, if you want to go then I'll come."

"Sorry, no. I just thought you went everyday. I can go by myself." _I guess waiting until tomorrow isn't going to happen._

"I'll come. Just give me some time to get ready." She nodded appreciatively. I turned back to my tent to grab my bag, then went to the RV to get a bite to eat. It was almost like it had been with Daryl, except much… friendlier. Thera was definitely a lot different from him. She was nice, polite, funny. Sure, they were both good fighters and had about the same level of ambition, but when comparing their personalities, they were complete opposites.

"Okay, I'm ready," I said to Thera as she walked up to meet me by the edge of the camp.

"Let's go then," she replied happily.

"They're still there," she observed quietly. We were looking down into an alleyway from a ways down the street. Below the building we were laying on top of, the street was dotted with walkers. The alley was barely visible from where we were, but we were at just the right angle to see a large blue tarp strung up to the fence that blocked off the open end of the side street.

"That's them then?" I whispered. I felt that they would be able to hear us if we didn't stay quiet, even though I knew it was impossible.

"Yep. There's about five of them I think, but I don't know if I saw them all."

"What do you want to do?" I inquired. I didn't suppose there was anything that we _could _do, but maybe she had some ideas.

"I don't know yet. I need into my place. If they haven't left yet, I doubt they will be anytime soon. I'm guessing that they're staying in one of the buildings there and using the alleyway as an entrance in case they need to move around." With that, she got up from where she had been laying down and returned to the far side of the roof.

Following her, I attempted to come up with an alternative. "What about the sewers? It almost worked for us when we first ran into Rick."

"Almost?" she questioned with a smile.

"It could have worked, there was just a grating in the way." _Plus the walkers that were living there._

"Ah, I see. Well, it doesn't matter, there was no sewer entrance. The only way in is from the roof."

"So, what are we going to do?"

Thera tilted her head and shrugged, "I'm just going to go for it."

Backing up, Thera eyed the gap between the roof we were on and the next. "What are you doing?" I asked, my voice laced with concern.

With that, she started to run directly towards the edge of the roof. Leaping at the last second, she flew through the air, clearing the gap easily. She landed lightly, not even losing her balance.

Stunned, I stood in silence. "You coming?" she joked. _Maybe that wasn't a joke, _I considered after she looked at me expectantly.

"I am _not_ doing that." All she did was laugh.

"Fine, climb down the building and walk through the corpse-filled streets," she said, turning away and starting toward the other end of the building she was now on.

"Wait, are you serious!" I whispered exasperatedly after her. Glancing back with a grin, Thera continued to the other side of the roof. Not knowing what else to do, I looked down to the street below. There were only four walkers below me, but they were a long way down. If I fell, I would splat onto the pavement. Bones broken, skulls collapsed… _I really shouldn't be thinking about falling._

Thera had done it with ease. Could it really be that hard? Backing up slowly, I took a deep breath in. _I'll be fine._ Thera was now halfway across the next roof, but she had stopped to watch me as I was preparing to jump. With another deep breath, I started to run.

I had always been fast, but right it was almost as if my speed had been multiplied several times over. The only thing I could see was the edge of the roof approaching faster and faster. The space between me and the edge was dwindling so quickly I could barely register it. Soon, the gap was right in front of me.

"Jump!" I heard from somewhere in front of me. Without thinking, I pushed off of the ground. Flying off of the roof, I managed to clear the gap, but not nearly as gracefully as Thera. Crashing onto my stomach, all of the air escaped from my lungs.

"Nicely done!" I heard from Thera. I would normally think that she was being sarcastic, but she sounded genuinely pleased. "Really, that was pretty good."

"Thanks," I tried to say between breaths.

We sat there for what seemed like ten minutes, but judging from how much I was still shaking, that much time couldn't have passed.

"You good?" Thera said, interrupting the silence.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied.

"We've got a few more jumps like that, just so you know."

"Great," I squeaked.

We continued across the row of buildings, my jumps becoming less and less painful, while Thera's stayed equally as smooth as the first. After three more jumps, we were on the building that was two down from the location of the other group. All that was separating us now was a "corpse-filled" street, as Thera had put it, and those two buildings.

"Where exactly _is _your place?" I finally asked her. It had been on my mind since I first met her, but this was the first time I thought I would have a chance of her telling me.

"We're looking at it," she replied, nodding her head towards the building on the far side of the alley that was covered with the tarp.

"You mean to say that this new group isn't _near _you place, but _in _it?"

"Yep," she declared.

"And you still intend on getting in there?"

"That's my stuff. All of my supplies is what's keeping them there. I'm not blaming them, but I still want it back." She hadn't taken her eyes off of the building. We were just sitting there, staring across the street.

"Do you have a plan?" I asked hesitantly.

"Not yet."

* * *

"You're going to get them killed!" I yelled at her, though it was still a whisper.

"They'll be fine! We'll make sure they have a way out first, then we'll do it." she countered. _This is a terrible plan._

"Why don't we just wait until they're asleep, then go in there and do whatever it is that you need to do?" I attempted.

"That's a terrible plan! I know you're not stupid enough to believe that will work." she argued. It was true, but at this point I was just trying to stop her from going through with this.

Thera was climbing down the fire escape of the building we were on, doing so as carefully and quietly as she could. I had no choice but to follow her, even knowing what she was planning on doing once she reached the ground.

"Would you please just think this through?" I insisted once we were nearing the bottom.

"I have, that's how I came up with this plan! Now, would you please shut up and either help me or leave?" As she finished her sentence, she leaped off the bottom platform of the fire escape, bashing a walker's head in with her bat as she fell. Taking out the rest of the walkers near us, she looked up towards me, awaiting my response.

"I'll help you, but only if we make sure that they can get out alright. It is your place, after all."

"Thank you," she nodded gratefully."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Thera was in front of me, peering around the corner while still trying to stay out of sight. In order to make it to her building, we had to cross the main street, which was, unfortunately, filled with walkers, then go through one more building in order to make it into the blocked off alleyway.

"We're going to have to wait for an opening, then book it," she explained. "I'm going to take out as many as I can, as quickly as I can while we cross, but I think it'd be best if we just run for it, then take care of them in the alley."

"Sounds good to me."

With that, Thera began to creep out a few more feet into the street, waiting for the perfect opportunity. In less than a minute, she motioned to me, then sprinted behind a nearby car. I followed, crouching next to her.

"Ready? Stay close to me, by the way." she asked, sounding confident.

"How many times have you done this?" I inquired. From the looks of it, it had been a few times, but I couldn't imagine her putting herself in danger like this too often.

"Enough to know what I'm doing." she replied, assuring me as well as herself. Apparently she wasn't as confident as she seemed.

"Okay, great. I'm ready," I decided, nodding mostly to myself. Thera bent down to peer under the car, attempting to see the shuffling feet of the walkers that remained between us and our destination. She stayed like that for a few seconds, then sat up again. Nodding to me, she slowly crept forwards, reaching the back of the car.

In one swift movement, Thera lept up, sprinting out into the street. Her bat was at the ready, but she was able to make it nearly all the way across the street without problem. I was on her heels, hoping that we would make it to the alley without incident.

Our original plan had been to go into the alley that was directly across from the one we had been hiding in, then go through the building and into the alley that the group was inhabiting. Thera, however, was forced to switch direction.

As we were nearing the sidewalk on the other side of the street, four walkers managed to place themselves in front of us. Thera, not wanting to pause in the middle of the street, turned to her right. Looking back at me, she pointed toward the door of the closest building. Understanding her change of plan, I ran in front of her, allowing her to cover our backs.

The door opened with ease, luckily for us, and I was able to dash inside. I stayed, holding the door open for Thera, who was now bashing in the skull of the nearest walker. She then turned, entering the building behind me.

Slamming the door, I fell against it, my chest heaving due to the excitement. The geeks that Thera had left alive scratched at the door, clambering to get in.

"We've got to hurry. Back door," stated Thera, stalking to the back of the building. It was a furniture store. The floor was covered in various models and colours of couches and armchairs, all arranged perfectly. Most looked untouched, save a few that were painted red with blood.

"Welcome to my neighbour's lovely home," Thera joked, motioning to the area around her.

"Very nice," I observed with a smile. Thera continued quickly to the back of the store, reaching the exit.

"We're going to have to wreck some of the defences to give them an easy escape, like you said." _At least she was complying with my demands._

"We can't make a sound, so be careful. I'm going to open this door, then lure an walkers towards us." _That sounds like a brilliant plan!_

Thera slowly opened the door, causing it to creak loudly. Only two walkers were hovering in the alley, so Thera stepped forward, taunting them. As soon the nearest one was close enough, she took out its legs. The walker, a middle aged man, fell to the ground, smacking his chin on the pavement. As he raised his head, I could see where the rotting skin had been scraped off. It was now left on the pavement, a chunky mush of red and white flesh.

Thera slammed her bat downwards onto his head, resulting in an even greater splatter of colour. Then, she moved on to the next walker, who had just come into reach.

This time, she adjusted her stance, swinging the bat hard. It contacted with the walker's head perfectly, making a crunching noise. Thera pivoted back on her foot casually, letting her bat fall to her side. She turned to smile at me, then nodded her head in the direction of the blocked off alleyway.

We slunk along the side of the building, listening intently for any noise that could be coming from the group. Hearing nothing, Thera put her back against the wall, turning her head to look down the street. The alley was blocked off in the same way as it was on the other end: a blue tarp strung across a chain link fence. However, up close we were able to see that the gate was held shut with a chain that had been wrapped around it, but not locked.

"Nothing," she whispered, peering through a gap between the tarp and the wall.

"It's going to be easy enough to open this," I observed, motioning to the chain keeping the fence closed.

"I guess so. Want to take that off? Then we'll get this tarp down." Thera let me go to work, keeping her back against the wall and checking in all directions, her bat raised.

Once I had untangled the chain, I prodded the gate with my foot, causing it to open slightly. Thera had turned to untie the right side of the tarp, so I went to work on the left.

After a few seconds, I had managed to get nowhere with the tight knots. The rope was hardened, probably because of being outside in the weather.

"Want some help," laughed Thera, holding her knife out to me.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks," I stammered, embarrassed. The tarp soon fell to the ground, rustling loudly.

"That good enough for you?" questioned Thera, referring to my demands. I looked at what we had accomplished. The gate was partially open, the tarp laying on the cement on the other side of it. Whoever that was in this group would be able to run straight out into this back street, which was clear of walkers, thanks to Thera.

"Yeah, that's good," I responded.

Thera nodded, turning back to the furniture store that we had just come out of. "Let's go then."

Thera stood silently for a few seconds, listening again for any sounds coming from the alleyway. Hearing nothing, she positioned herself close to the wall of the building that the group was in, then started to run down the street. She was heading for the other locked gate. I followed as noiselessly as I could, keeping close to the wall.

As soon as Thera got to the gate, she whipped out her knife and cut down the tarp from one side. Grudgingly, I went to work on the chain. Immediately, walkers started coming in our direction.

"Just keep going," Thera encouraged. Finally getting the chain off, I dropped it at my feet.

"You're sure about this?" I asked.

"Bit too late to ask now," she smiled. "Start heading back down the alley, I'll be right behind you." Thera was holding the gate shut, giving me time to get away before the Geeks began pouring in. She handed me her gun. "I might need back up, but we should just be able to run."

Taking it, I turned away. I had made it halfway down the alley, just past the door to the building we were seeking entry to, when a sound came from behind me.

"Who the hell are you? What- You idiots! Are you trying to get us killed?"

I stopped abruptly. Looking back, I could see a large man carrying a rifle entering the alley through the door that I had just passed. Thera was still at the gate, which was now the only thing between us and a horde of walkers. Unfortunately, now there was a gun-wielding, angry man between _us_.

"Nope, I just want my stuff back," she yelled to the man, who was now lifting his gun.

"_Your_ stuff? This is our place, you senseless dipshit." He now had his back to me, having turned toward Thera. His gun was at the ready, aimed right at her head.

"Don't you dare open that gate," he threatened. The door opened again beside him, this time revealing a woman. She wasn't carrying a weapon, but she still took a position by the first man's side.

"Get back inside, Laurel," he said under his breath. "This could get messy pretty quick."

The woman hadn't even noticed me apparently, because she simply went back to the door, stopping only to encourage the man. "I'm sure you can handle it."

The door shut, leaving only me, the man, and Thera in the alley once more. I looked to Thera, who was now struggling to keep her fingers away from the mouths of the walkers that were trying to claw through the gate. She notices my stare and uses her head to gesture toward the gun in my hand. Remembering the weapon, I considered my options. I can either leave Thera here, which really isn't a choice, or somehow make this man lower his gun.

I slowly raise it, walking up to the man. Pointing it to the back of his head, I feel him jump.

"Lower your gun," I try. I don't sound particularly menacing, however the man seems to respond.

"C'mon boy. Do you really want to do this?"

"I think I do. Lower your gun," I repeat. This time, he complies. Bringing his gun down, he continues to reason with me.

"Just make the pretty lady lock the gate. We aren't hurting no one, there's no sense in doing this." However, I know the real story. This group stole Thera's home. Anyone would have, but it still wasn't right.

"You all need to leave. We'll keep the walkers out, but your group leaves." Thera was now bending down to pick the chain up off of the ground. Weaving it through the fence, she was able to avoid all of the walkers' hungry mouths, holding it instead of the gate itself.

"Fine, fine. Just lower the gun, son."

"I'm not stupid," I countered. "Get your people out. Now." I pressed the gun to the man's head with more pressure, leading him to the door. He opened it, only to find the woman, Laurel, on the other side holding a gun.

"Put it down, boy," she yelled. I looked to Thera, who was looking more fed up with the situation than scared. She shook her head, then began counting down on her fingers.

_Five._

Apparently not able to concentrate on more than one thing at once, the group was completely focused on me now, forgetting about the impending horde of walkers.

_Four._

Laurel had her gun pointed right at me, but she held it awkwardly, almost as if she was unfamiliar with the weapon.

_Three._

Thera was turning towards me, her back to the gate. Grabbing her bat off of her back, she continued to count.

_Two._

I stood on the balls of my feet, anxious to get this over with.

_One._

Thera released the chain, dashing forward. I waited until she was close, then dropped the gun from the man's head, sprinting alongside her. Behind us, walkers had poured into the alley. Gunshots rang out, hitting the walls and the ground behind our feet. _Laurel really did not know how to shoot._

Reaching the end of the alley, she turned right, rather than left toward the furniture store. She began to slow, pointing to a fire escape that ended one floor up, just a few yards off the ground. Going ahead of her, I jumped, just barely grabbing onto the bottom rung of the ladder. Scrambling up quickly, I climbed onto the platform.

Thera was right behind me, ushering me up the entirety of the fire escape. Quite soon, we were on the roof.

"Told you they weren't a group to befriend," she said with a deep breath.

"And I get that now," I replied in a slightly higher pitch than I would have like.

Thera went to the edge of the roof, peering down onto the alley we had just come from. Gunshots were still echoing off the walls, meaning that our plan had at least partially worked out.

"I think they're all down there now," she observed, smiling. She jogged back to the fire escape, starting to climb back down.

"Wait, what are you doing?" I questioned.

"Getting my stuff," she answered happily.


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry that I haven't uploaded for so long. I made this chapter a bit longer than I had intended to make up for it. As always, thank you for the reviews!**

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to AMC, apart from my OC.**

Chapter 10

Thera stepped down to the highest platform of the fire escape, shoving open the window that was just off to the left. Swinging over the railing, she easily slid her legs through the opening, landing lightly inside. I followed, my feet landing on a dark hardwood floor was I was through the window.

We were now standing in a small, well lit room. Against one wall was a desk, nearly completely covered in papers. The chair was pushed in, almost as though the room had been untouched by everything that was happening outside. The other wall was taken up by bookshelves. It was very… normal.

Thera took a deep breath in, smiling. "My office," she said, holding her arms out and turning around to admire it, as though she had been away from home for the longest time.

"It looks like they haven't touched this room, so we'll grab as much stuff as we can and pile it up here. It might take a couple of trips, depending on how long we have." _How much stuff does she have?_

Thera left the room, her combat boots clunking slightly on the floor. She normally walked so silently, but she was comfortable here. Relaxed enough to forget about being stealthy. Entering the hallway, I realized that this was a small apartment. Considering the lower floors, it had to be split level.

To my right, there was a bedroom. The blankets were tossed around, partially hanging onto the floor. Apart from a few books on the side table, the room was pretty much empty. The window above the bed allowed plenty of sunlight to pour into the room, highlighting the powder blue walls.

The next room we passed was a small bathroom. On the counter there was a cup holding a toothbrush. Just a single, green toothbrush. Beside it was a tube of toothpaste. Seeing the two objects made me realize just how much I missed this sort of thing. An average, mundane life.

"Start emptying the drawers. Grab everything, I'll get a bag," Thera ordered, turning back to the bedroom we had just passed. In a few seconds, a backpack was thrown into the doorway. Thera remained in the bedroom, apparently gathering the things that were hidden under the bed and in the drawers of the dresser.

I had soon dumped the contents of every drawer into the backpack, then met up with Thera in the hall. Gunshots could still be heard from the alley, which was a good sign. It meant that the Geeks were still being taken care of, plus more were on their way.

The hallway ended at the top of a set of stairs. Thera went down them, careful not to make a noise now. At the bottom of the staircase, the walls opened up to reveal a dark room with boarded windows. To my left was what I supposed to be the door that opened to the alley. Behind us was a small kitchen, which connected to a spacious living room.

Thera, seeing that there was no one left in the apartment, started to push the couch from the living room against the door. I ran for the kitchen, wanting to gather all of the food I could find.

"They've made such a mess!" Thera exclaimed. She was right. There were open cans left everywhere, plus wrappers from various types of food spread across the floor and counter.

"This is more food than I've seen since the beginning!" I said excitedly, opening the cupboards. It was completely stocked with various canned good and packaged food. Every cupboard was neatly organized, apart from where the intruders had messed it up.

"Bring as much as you can upstairs," Thera commanded. I started hauling loads of food upstairs, dumping it all onto the desk in the first room we had entered. After two trips, there was a banging on the door. The group had noticed our arrival, as well as the fact that they couldn't get back inside. I felt a twinge of guilt at leaving them outside with the walkers, but brushed it aside. After all, it was them that had taken this place from Thera in the first place.

"We've got to hurry, last load," Thera decided. She had been bringing stuff up from the living room. As opposed to the rustling of packaging that had been coming from me, her supplies had been heavier. From the few seconds I had paid attention to it, I had noticed a pile of what looked to be camping supplies. Though it didn't make much sense, Thera being holed up safely here for the last few months, it was the only thing I could fit to the materials that I had seen.

After my last trip up the stairs, I was still grinning from ear to ear. Her whole house was simply amazing. It was safe, fully stocked, and an actual _house._ Thinking back to how badly Thera had wanted back in here, it was now more than understandable. What astounded me now was the fact that she was so willing to give it up.

Unfortunately, we were now left with an _incredible _amount of supplies that we had to get all the way from here to the camp. Considering the number of trips it had taken the two of us to get it just up the stairs, I couldn't imagine how we were going to manage getting it back home.

"Start filling it," Thera said roughly, surprising me by hitting me in the chest with a large hiking pack. Of course, I started off by stuffing as much food as possible into it. _I've missed having this food._

Within a short amount of time, we had managed to stuff nearly everything into the packs. We were now left with around five loose cans of various foods, two sleeping bags, the two hiking packs, and three smaller bags.

"Pockets?" Thera considered, attempting to stuff the cans into the pockets of her pants. Laughing, I did the same. _That takes care of those._ Still having an uncomfortable amount to carry, Thera decided to add to the load. She pulled on her hiking pack, then started to gather up the papers that were spread across the desk. Expertly, she quickly scanned the bookshelf, pulling out the odd book and adding it to her pile of papers. She then picked up the two sleeping bags, as well as one of the smaller packs. I leaned over, struggling to get my pack onto my shoulders, finding that it was insanely heavy due to the canned goods, then grabbed the two remaining bags.

Downstairs, the banging had subsided, now turning to the skidding of the couch across the floor, accompanied by some creative cursing and loud yelling.

"Time to go!" Thera said, crawling out of the window clumsily, having problems because of the pack. I followed, encountering just as much trouble. Thera was already part way down the fire escape, throwing her smaller bag to the ground before she jumped.

Behind me, I could hear someone running up the stairs. Slamming the window as I left, I half jumped, half fell down the fire escape, catching myself at the last moment. Catching up to Thera on the ground, we returned to the safety of the furniture store. Conveniently, we were able to sneak past the alley without encountering the group, as they were now searching for us in the house.

"We did it," Thera sighed, dropping her pack to the ground and flopping down onto one of the many couches.

"I can't believe it," I replied, partially still amazed by the amount of supplies that we had pilfered, partially stunned by the encounter with the other survivors.

We sat there for a few minutes, then forced ourselves to get up, making our way out the back door and down the back street, heading in the opposite direction of Thera's old home. Luckily for us, the gunshots from the other group had drawn all of the walkers in the area toward that alley, so we were able to pass behind most of them, apart from a few that were coming through the back road.

Our journey home wasn't too bad. We travelled in the same way as before: roof jumping. It seemed to be Thera's favourite way to get around, and admittedly was much easier than sticking to the streets. The bags were a bit of a hassle as we had to throw them across before we jumped, but it really didn't bother me, considering just how much we were going to gain from this insignificant amount of effort. Quite soon, we had made it to the edge of the city, then we continued on to the camp. As we neared its perimeter, we were met with yells, which seemed to be accompanied by a heated argument.

"Don't you even say that! Carl is my son. I don't need you running around teaching him the things that it's my job to do!"

"I wouldn't need to teach him if you could just give him the time of day and actually be his dad! I'm the one that took care of both of them. Not you. Just 'cause your back it doesn't mean I should have to never speak to them again!"

"You just have to keep bringing that up, don't you?"

I exchanged a look with Thera, finding that she had the slightest smirk on her face. We walked more slowly now, not wanting to intrude on the argument. Unfortunately, the two men were right in our path.

"Hey, guys," I said timidly, trying to sound happy and unassuming. They both jerked their heads towards us as we exited the layer of trees, stepping out into the clearing that they were positioned in.

"Glenn," Rick greeted. He was standing quite close to Shane, his stance one for fighting, his hand on the gun holstered at his side. He sent a sideways glare to Shan, then repositioned himself, coming across as more friendly now that we were present.

"Not intruding, are we?" Thera asked innocently, though I knew this was her idea of poking fun.

"'Course not," Rick said with a forced smile. "Looks as though you've made quite the trip," he added, his eyes widening at the heavy load we were carrying.

"You won't believe it. Seriously, Thera was completely set for years before those idiots took over her place. But we got it back. Some of it, at least." I could sense the excitement leaking through my voice, but it wasn't uncalled for.

We were soon surrounded by everyone in the middle of camp. Relating our story, we started to unpack everything. It was better than Christmas Day. Not a single person was absent, save Daryl, who was out hunting. Thera explained that we would be rationing everything, but that tonight we could let loose a little. The pack full of food was emptied, everyone fighting over what we would be having for dinner. Eventually, they settled on a full three course meal, completed with canned fruit for dessert.

While we were nearing the end of the dinner discussion, Daryl showed up, carrying three squirrels.

"What's all this about?" he asked gruffly. Carl began excitedly and inaccurately going over our story, making everything completely out of proportion. Daryl was patient enough to allow him to finish, then turned to me and Thera to get more information.

"As Carl has so graciously explained, we raided my old place. This pack was filled with food, as you can probably tell. This one is the stuff that I think you and me will be finding more interesting. Also, two sleeping bags, some smaller stuff, and my books," she stated easily. _Stuff her and Daryl will find more interesting?_

Daryl nodded, moving over to set his squirrels on a nearby table. Thera smiled at me, grabbing her hiking pack and following Daryl. For the next little while, those who were not obsessing over the food were watching them unpacking an unimaginable amount of camping supplies. It varied from collapsable pots and pans to a variety of knives. However, the thing that excited Thera the most was her tent.

"It's not just a tent. See? It's a suspended tent!" It was the happiest I had seen her. Ever. She was trying to communicate to us all exactly what that meant, but we were all really just focusing on her excitement.

"You can string it between trees, then you're sleeping in the air. I figure it'd be perfect for any overnight trips."

"That's so awesome!" Carl exclaimed. Maybe Rick will have to take him camping some time.

After sorting through all of our newly acquired supplies. Andrea and Carol went to work on starting dinner. It was going to be our first proper dinner in a very long time, so we were all ecstatic. Thera was sitting near the trailer with Rick and Shane, as well as Dale. Together they were counting every can of food that we had, planning out our rations and determining how long this load was going to last us.

"Four months, eight days," Rick finally said in disbelief, looking at the paper Thera had just handed him. We all looked up as he said it again, louder this time.

"That's amazing!" Laurie said, running over to hug Rick, then Thera. Thera stood there awkwardly, allowing her to hug her, however not returning the embrace. Laurie didn't seem to notice, being too overjoyed by the simple math to care about anything else.

"Thank you," she said.

"Nooo problem," Thera replied almost sarcastically. We made eye contact from across the camp. I smiled at her, causing her to start laughing, finally returning Laurie's hug. Though she had always joked around with us, today was different. Today she was happy, so happy that she couldn't contain her smile. Her previous words came back to me, rushing through my head. _As Carl has so graciously explained, we raided my old place._ Her old place. It was good to know that she had finally made a decision.


End file.
